I have no idea how I found this blog a few weeks ago, but I was so enchanted with her recipes that I signed up for her mailing list and continue to be enchanted by her recipes. They're most of them all really healthy -- or can be made so, and mostly desserts and sweet snacks, or "breakfast" for some of them if you like. By healthy I mean no wheat flour (or it can be substituted), no sugar (or it can be sub'd), and many are even raw. Have a look sometime, but be warned: once you start looking around you might spend some time there.

One major reason is that oppressed classes always know more about their oppressors than the oppressors themselves know. That absolutely includes scoping them out psychologically AND intuitively and yes, women excel (as a rule) at the intuitive because that realm was at once relegated strictly to us and made undesirable -- or at least suspect -- as a human trait by the Patriarchy.

It's a survival skill. Ask any African Americans who are keenly aware of their past. You'll likely get an earful.

In his Presidential Address to the American Economics Association (AEA) Mankiw used economics-speak to explain why janitors don’t deserve a living wage while Wall Street executives deserve billions. “Under a standard set of assumptions, a competitive economy leads to an efficient allocation of resources…it is also a standard result that in a competitive equilibrium, the factors of production are paid the value of their marginal product. That is, each person’s income reflects the value of what he contributed to society’s production of goods and services. One might easily conclude that, under these idealized conditions, each person receives his just deserts.” Oh.

And here's my epiphany re non-Keynesian economists: It's all just pretty words intended to provide a fictional basis and foundation for whatever it is they want it to say and mean. In fact, CLEARLY, John Kenneth Galbraith had it exactly right:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. - John Kenneth Galbraith

This was quite shocking to me, in a very interesting article about the demands of the Occupy folks, as elucidated in the We are the 99% Tumblr blog: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

Let’s bring up a favorite quote around here. Anthropologist David Graeber cites historian Moses Finley, who identified “the perennial revolutionary programme of antiquity, cancel debts and redistribute the land, the slogan of a peasantry, not of a working class.” And think through these cases. The overwhelming majority of these statements are actionable demands in the form of (i) free us from the bondage of these debts and (ii) give us a bare minimum to survive on in order to lead decent lives (or, in pre-Industrial terms, give us some land). In Finley’s terms, these are the demands of a peasantry, not a working class.

The actual ideology of modernity, broadly speaking, is absent. There isn’t the affluenza of Freddie’s worries, no demands for cheap gas, cheaper credit, giant houses, bigger electronics all under the cynical ”Ownership Society” banner. The demands are broadly health care, education and not to feel exploited at the high-level, and the desire to not live month-to-month on bills, food and rent and under less of the burden of debt at the practical level.

The people in the tumblr aren’t demanding to bring democracy into the workplace via large-scale unionization, much less shorter work days and more pay. They aren’t talking the language of mid-twentieth century liberalism, where everyone puts on blindfolds and cuts slices of pie to share. The 99% looks too beaten down to demand anything as grand as “fairness” in their distribution of the economy. There’s no calls for some sort of post-industrial personal fulfillment in their labor – very few even invoke the idea that a job should “mean something.” It’s straight out of antiquity – free us from the bondage of our debts and give us a basic ability to survive.

This is simply stunning. THIS is (one direction) in which people could take the Occupy Movement energy and initiative. THIS is the least we should DEMAND of our elected leaders, and the least we should help ensure in our communities. THIS IS STUNNING (oh, I already said that??)! It's also doable, IMO. People are so freakin' FED UP with the way things are, this is doable in many, many communities around the country.

A Bill of Rights for Occupied Communities
A bill of rights that protects people and nature, but not corporations? Your community could be next.

When communities try to keep corporations from engaging in activities they don’t want, they often find they don’t have the legal power to say “no.” Why? Because our current legal structure too often protects the “rights” of corporations over the rights of actual human beings.

If we are to elevate our rights and the rights of our communities above those of a corporate few, we, too, need to transform the way laws work.

As we wrote in Turning Occupation into Lasting Change, mainstream progressive groups have failed by constraining their activities within legal and regulatory systems purposefully structured to subordinate communities to corporate power. Truly effective movements don’t operate that way. Abolitionists never sought to regulate the slave trade; they sought to transform the legal structure that supported it by treating slaves as property rather than people under the law. Suffragists did the same with the legal status of women.
The template is based on real laws already passed from the municipal to the national level—from Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of Constitutional “rights” to Ecuador including legal rights for nature in its Constitution.

This style of organizing moves away from traditional activism—mired in letter writing campaigns and lowest common denominator federal and state legislation—toward a new activism in which communities claim the right to make their own decisions, directly.

To help them do so, we’re offering the model Community Bill of Rights template below, a legislative template for communities that want to protect their own rights. It’s based on real laws already passed from the municipal to the national level—from Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of Constitutional “rights” to Ecuador including legal rights for nature in its Constitution. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety.

Passing a new bill of rights is a way for activists to “occupy” their cities with new legal structures that empower community majorities over corporate minorities, rather than the other way around.
Community Bill of Rights of

Section 1 - Authority

This Community Bill of Rights is enacted pursuant to the inherent right of the residents of the City of to govern their own community, including, without limitation, the Declaration of Independence’s declaration that governments are instituted to secure the rights of people, and the Constitution’s recognition that all political power is inherent in the people.

Section 2 - Findings and Purpose

Whereas, the citizens of recognize that environmental and economic sustainability cannot be achieved if the rights of municipal majorities are routinely overridden by corporate minorities claiming certain legal powers; and Whereas, the citizens of believe that local legislation that embodies the interests of the community is mandated by the doctrine of the consent of the governed, and the right to local, community self-government; Whereas, the citizens of believe that the protection of residents, neighborhoods, and the natural environment constitutes the highest and best use of the police powers that this municipality possesses; Therefore, the residents of the city of hereby adopt this ordinance which creates a community bill of rights for the residents and communities of the City, and removes certain legal powers from corporations operating within the City of .

Section 3 - Statements of Law - A Community Bill of Rights

3.1. The Right to a Locally-Based Economy
Residents have the right to a locally-based economy to ensure local job creation and enhance local business opportunities. The right shall include the right to have local monies reinvested locally by lending institutions, and the right to equal access to capital, credit, contracts, incentives, and services for businesses owned by residents.

3.2. The Right To Affordable And Safe Housing
Residents have the right to affordable housing, the right to a safely-maintained dwelling, and the right to be free from housing discrimination. The City shall ensure the availability of low-income housing stock sufficient to meet the needs of the low-income housing community. People and families may only be denied renting or buying of a dwelling for non-discriminatory reasons and may only be evicted from their residence for non-discriminatory causes.

3.3. The Right To Affordable Preventive Health Care
Residents have the right to affordable preventive health care. For residents otherwise unable to access such care, the City shall guarantee such access by coordinating with area health care providers to create affordable fee-for-service programs within eighteen (18) months following adoption of this provision.

3.4. Rights for Nature
Ecosystems and natural communities within the City of possess inalienable rights to exist and flourish. The rights of rivers, streams, and aquifers shall include the right to sustainable recharge, flows sufficient to protect native fish habitat, and clean water. The City of and any resident of the City or group of residents have standing to enforce and protect these rights.

3.5. Right to Water
All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in possess a fundamental and inalienable right to sustainably access, use, consume, and preserve water drawn from natural water cycles that provide water necessary to sustain life within the City.

3.6. Right to Sustainable Food System
All residents of possess a fundamental and inalienable right to access, use, consume, produce and distribute foods generated from sustainable farming practices, and to be free of infection, or infestation or drift by any means, from genetically engineered life forms or genetically modified organisms.

3.7. The Right To Affordable And Renewable Energy
Residents have the right to access affordable and renewable energy sources.

3.8. Right to Constitutional Protections in the Workplace
Employees shall possess United States and Bill of Rights’ constitutional protections in the workplace within the City of , and workers in unionized workplaces shall possess the right to collective bargaining.

3.9. Right to Determine the Future of Neighborhoods
Neighborhood majorities shall have the right to approve all zoning changes proposed for their neighborhood involving significant commercial, industrial, or residential development. It shall be the responsibility of the proposer of the zoning change to acquire the approval of the neighborhood majority, and the zoning change shall not be effective without it.

3.10. Right to a Free, Open and Accessible Internet
(a) All residents of the City of shall possess the right to a free and open internet, which shall include, but not be limited to, the right to access, use, send, post, receive, or offer lawful content, applications, or services of the user’s choice.
(b) All residents of the City of shall possess the right to be free from provider service and performance level discrimination based on the identity, source or type of individual content or service providers.

3.11. Right to a Citizen Managed and Accountable Police Force
All residents of the City of have a right to a police force managed by a civilian police chief held fully accountable by an elected panel of citizens.

3.12. Right to Clean and Fair Elections Free from Corporate Interference
Residents of possess the right to fair elections, which shall include the right to an electoral process free from corporate involvement.

3.13. Right to Clean Government
Residents of have the right to clean government, which shall include the right to a City legislative process free from corporate lobbying and involvement.

3.14. Right to Marriage Equality
Residents of have the right to gender-neutral marriages for both same- and opposite-sex couples.

Section 4 - Prohibitions and Corporate Legal Privileges

4.1. Prohibition on Corporate Personhood and Privileges
Corporations and other business entities which violate the rights secured by this Community Bill of Rights shall not be deemed to be “persons,” afforded by the United States and Constitutions, nor possess any other legal rights, privileges, powers, or protections which would interfere with the enforcement of rights enumerated by this Charter.

4.2. Ban on Electioneering
It shall be unlawful for any corporation to make a contribution or expenditure to influence any election within the City of .

4.3. Ban on Lobbying
It shall be unlawful for any corporation to communicate with an elected official within the City of urging support or opposition to pending legislation. This ban shall not be construed to prohibit open forum communications between corporate lobbyists and elected officials.

Section 5 - People’s Right to Self Government

All residents of possess the fundamental and inalienable right to a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them.

Section 6 - Enforcement

6.1. The City of may enforce this Community Bill of Rights through an action in equity brought in the . In such an action, the City of shall be entitled to recover all costs of litigation, including, without limitation, expert and attorney’s fees.

6.2. Any resident of shall have the authority to enforce this Community Bill of Rights through an action in equity brought in the . In such an action, the resident shall be entitled to recover all costs of litigation, including, without limitation, expert and attorney’s fees.

Section 7 - Severability

The provisions of this Community Bill of Rights are severable. If any court of competent jurisdiction decides that any section, clause, sentence, part, or provision of this Ordinance is illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect, impair, or invalidate any of the remaining sections, clauses, sentences, parts, or provisions of the Community Bill of Rights.

Section 8 - Repealer

All inconsistent provisions of prior Ordinances adopted by the City of are hereby repealed, but only to the extent necessary to remedy the inconsistency.

This model was developed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. You can learn more about CELDF’s theory of change, its democracy school educational programs on corporate power and its global organizing efforts for community rights at their website: www.celdf.org.
You can also find the model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy Communities as a google doc or as a pdf.

Thomas Linzey and Jeff Reifman wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Thomas Linzey is the Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit law firm which provides legal assistance to communities struggling to protect community self-government and the natural environment from corporate decision-making. Jeff Reifman is co-founder of Envision Seattle, a rights-building effort modeled after CELDF’s work. He’s also a technologist, freelance writer and organizer.

YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons License